'Hugs and smiles' as Bellingham Market Basket gets back to business

BELLINGHAM – The local Market Basket was up and running with a full staff Thursday morning after Arthur T. Demoulas reached an agreement to purchase the company from rival relatives.

Store Director Steve Dunn, a 36-year employee, was by the doors greeting customers like old friends, many of whom hadn’t been inside for six weeks because of the boycott.

"Hugs and smiles, that's been the response all morning," he said.

Arthur T. Demoulas reached an agreement with rival cousin Arthur S. Demoulas and his family Wednesday night to buy the company for $1.5 billion. Arthur T. Demoulas, who owned 49.5 percent and ran the company, was ousted in June by Arthur S. Demoulas and members of his family who owned 50.5 percent.

In the six weeks it took for the Demoulas family to reach a deal, workers in Bellingham staged demonstrations outside the store and many customers boycotted. All full-time workers kept to their 40-hour-a-week schedule, Dunn said, and when they weren’t working, they were outside assisting the protests.

The part-time employees were laid off but will now return.

"When you get a group of people that stand together that's what happens: you can beat corporate America," said Joe Kenney, a grocery manager who was actively involved in the demonstrations.

Although the store's parking lot was packed, the produce section was completely empty and selections for meat, fish and dairy were slim.

The warehouses need to discard the stock that went bad during the lockout and sanitize the area, Kenney said. The process will likely take seven to nine days, and after that, the store will be right back where it started, he said.

"We’ll easily recover, we'll probably be busier than we ever have," Kenney said. "We've gotten very positive feedback, so many people are thanking us for what we did."

Bob Goldberg, a Medway resident and retired social studies teacher who was shopping at the store Thursday, said he was amazed a non-union, grassroots movement would stand behind a CEO the way Market Basket employees did - let alone succeed.

"The biggest thing to come out of it, I think, is a precedent," said Goldberg, a loyal customer for 25 years.

In talking with friends who are law professors, they came to the consensus the Market Basket feud would serve as an example for educators to demonstrate how not to treat employees, Goldberg said.

"You can use this to teach the need to gauge the pulse at the ground level, what's going on in the trenches, he said. "I don't think the other Demoulases could really see that, but Arthur T. can."

Page 2 of 2 - During the six weeks of protests, the new CEOs laid off all part-time employees.

After Arthur T. Demoulas returned, Dunn and his management team called their part-time workers and asked them to return. Ninety percent of them have returned, he said, and those who went on to other jobs have an open invitation to return.

"Almost all the part-timers are back. It's as if it never happened," Dunn said.

Dunn thanked Market Basket customers for their support and swift return, he said.

"They took the ball and rolled with it," Dunn said.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this story. Bill Shaner can be reached at 508-634-7582 or at wshaner@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @Bshaner_MDN.